The VMI men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams will join the NEC next season as an affiliate member. The school will also host the 2027 NEC Swimming & Diving Championships at Goodall Pool in the VMI Aquatic Center in its inaugural season in the conference.
The 2027 NEC Swimming & Diving Championships will run from February 17-20.
The VMI men’s swimming and diving team first joined the NEC in 2003 after the school left the SoCon for the upstart Big South Conference, which doesn’t sponsor swimming. When the school added a women’s team in 2005, it also joined the NEC.
In 2007, both programs left to become charter members of the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (now Coastal Collegiate Sports Association), a secondary conference designed to conglomerate east coast swimming & diving programs without large conference participation.
Then in the 2017-2018 season, the swimming & diving programs joined the America East Conference. Last season, the women’s program finished 7th out of 7 teams and the men’s program finished 4th out of 6 teams, though both finishes belied the progress the program has made in recent years.
Last season, the men’s team broke 10 school records and the women broke 20. Scott Thacker, who has spent the last four years with the program, was recently announced as the new head coach at Army. VMI has not yet announced his replacement.
Now they will join the NEC, where last year Howard University swept the team titles – including a first-ever win for the Howard women.
The NEC will now have 7 women’s teams and 6 men’s teams. The includes a new men’s program at Stonehill College expected to launch next season, and the departure of the Saint Francis women, who are going to D3. Crucially, this now allows men’s champions from the NEC to earn automatic qualifications for the NCAA Championships – which requires a minimum of five programs to count.
The America East is generally a much faster, and deeper, conference than the NEC overall, though there are standout exceptions.
Both genders in the America East Championship will still have at least five teams.
VMI has hosted the last three editions of the America East Championships. The $44 million VMI Aquatic Center was dedicated on January 7, 2023. It includes an indoor 50-meter pool, 1-meter springboards, 3-meter springboards, and a 5-meter diving platform, plus seating for 570 spectators.
“We are excited to join the NEC as our swimming and diving programs continue to improve each year,” says VMI Director of Athletics Jamaal Walton. “As a cadet, I vividly remember our swimming and diving program capturing back-to-back NEC Invitationals in 2006 and 2007. These programs have a championship mindset, and I love our chances heading into the NEC this upcoming season.”
VMI is also an NEC affiliate member in men’s lacrosse. A spokesperson for the school cited this as a primary reason for the move.
“We also believe it will put us in a better position to have competitive success,” the spokesperson said, alluding to the relative quality of competition in the two conferences.
2026-2027 America East Field
Women (in order of last year’s conference finish):
- Bryant – 775
- New Hampshire – 660
- Vermont – 613
- UMBC – 446
- Binghamton – 403
- Maine – 314
Men (in order of last year’s conference finish):
- UMBC – 805.5
- Binghamton – 748
- Bryant – 572.5
- NJIT – 353
- Maine – 347
2026-2026 NEC Field
Women (in order of last year’s conference finish):
- Howard – 856
- Central Connecticut State – 837
- Wagner – 407
- LIU – 334
- Stonehill – 299
- Le Moyne – 275
- VMI – new
Men (in order of last year’s conference finish):
- Howard – 859
- Wagner – 787.5
- Le Moyne – 684.5
- LIU – 576
- VMI – new
- Stonehill College – new
Peri big step down conference wise. Their football team will actually be able to compete though
The football team isn’t changing conferences.
I wonder where the America East Championships will be hosted this year… Maybe Florida like the Big East lol
It was held at WPI for a few years, I suspect it’ll return there. I don’t think any of the remaining schools have a facility to support a conference championship.
So 7 women’s teams and 6 men’s – St. Francis will be division 3
Good catch, I had forgotten about that one.
Is that supposed to start this fall? I remember reading about it spring 2025 but could not remember when the change would happen